Metabolomics is an emerging branch of "omics" and it involves identification and quantification of metabolites and chemical footprints of cellular regulatory processes in different biological species. The metabolome is the total metabolite pool in an organism, which can be measured to characterize genetic or environmental variations. Metabolomics plays a significant role in exploring environment-gene interactions, mutant characterization, phenotyping, identification of biomarkers, and drug discovery. Metabolomics is a promising approach to decipher various metabolic networks that are linked with biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in plants. In this context, metabolomics-assisted breeding enables efficient screening for yield and stress tolerance of crops at the metabolic level. Advanced metabolomics analytical tools, like non-destructive nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), liquid chromatography mass-spectroscopy (LC-MS), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and direct flow injection (DFI) mass spectrometry, have sped up metabolic profiling. Presently, integrating metabolomics with post-genomics tools has enabled efficient dissection of genetic and phenotypic association in crop plants. This review provides insight into the state-of-the-art plant metabolomics tools for crop improvement. Here, we describe the workflow of plant metabolomics research focusing on the elucidation of biotic and abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms in plants. Furthermore, the potential of metabolomics-assisted breeding for crop improvement and its future applications in speed breeding are also discussed. Mention has also been made of possible bottlenecks and future prospects of plant metabolomics.

中文翻译：

---

代谢组学：作物改良的前进方向。

代谢组学是“组学”的一个新兴分支，涉及代谢物的鉴定和定量以及不同生物物种中细胞调节过程的化学足迹。代谢组是生物体中的总代谢产物库，可对其进行测量以表征遗传或环境变异。代谢组学在探索环境与基因的相互作用，突变体表征，表型，生物标志物的鉴定和药物发现中起着重要作用。代谢组学是破译与植物中生物和非生物胁迫耐受性相关的各种代谢网络的一种有前途的方法。在这种情况下，代谢组学辅助育种可以在代谢水平上对作物的产量和胁迫耐受性进行有效筛选。先进的代谢组学分析工具，像非破坏性核磁共振波谱（NMR），液相色谱质谱（LC-MS），气相色谱质谱（GC-MS），高效液相色谱（HPLC）和直流进样（DFI）质谱光谱分析，加快了代谢谱分析。目前，将代谢组学与后基因组学工具整合在一起已使作物中遗传和表型关联的有效解剖成为可能。这篇综述深入了解了用于作物改良的最新植物代谢组学工具。在这里，我们描述了植物代谢组学研究的工作流程，重点是阐明植物中生物和非生物胁迫的耐受机制。此外，还讨论了代谢组学辅助育种对作物改良的潜力及其在快速育种中的未来应用。